🎉 - @whitepalxdin
Send ’ 🎉 ’ to kiss my muse at midnight on New Years Eve. | from @whitepalxdin
The fact that they’re both still at this party says a lot about how far they’ve come from the people who were on Earth last, and how much the little circle of people they’ve come to call their family means to them. Keith has never been one to celebrate the turning of a year, never made resolutions or decided on changing the course of his life because of an arbitrary date - the ceremony of it was something he understood, but just didn’t usually participate in. He didn’t begrudge people the chance to celebrate and let loose, and especially didn’t this year, after all they’d been through, but it wasn’t really for him.
Somehow, he still ends up at the party, lingering on the edges of it and watching his friends get progressively more loose-limbed and relaxed as the night wears on (and the booze kicks in). Keith’s had a few drinks himself, but not nearly enough to be drunk, and that’s just fine - he wants to be able to ride his bike back home, and he doesn’t need to be trashed to have a good time. Anyway, Shiro isn’t drinking much either, and if he’s honest with himself (and he tries to be, as often as he can) he’d rather ring in the new year with Shiro in relative quiet than in the middle of the crowd.
Which is how he finds himself out on a balcony next to his best friend, face tipped up toward the sky, smiling a little as the ambient noise of the party punches up behind them in anticipation of the ball dropping.
Because people can’t wait even for good things, there are already fireworks whizzing up into the sky and bursting. It’ll be even more insane once the clock rolls over to midnight, he knows, and he thinks that’s - strange, given how many people have explosion-related trauma these days - but he supposes tradition outweighs consideration for a lot of things. It doesn’t really get to Keith the way it might have, so he can enjoy the lights and the colors for a little while.
“Make any new years resolutions?” Shiro asks, voice light and steady in the semi-private space they’ve found outside.
“Do I ever?” Keith asks, mouth curling into a faint smile. “It’s just another day. It doesn’t mean anything more than any other day unless we want it to.”
Shiro hums in agreement, shifting his weight beside Keith. “Sometimes people need the push to do something they don’t have the resolve to do otherwise.”
The Keith of not-so-long ago would have scoffed at that, had something harsh and pointed to say, but tonight he just shrugs. A champagne colored burst lights up the sky, and he says, “I guess. Why, did you make any?”
He slides his gaze over to Shiro, curiosity and humor both bright in his face, to find Shiro already facing him. There’s nothing remarkable about the way that Shiro is looking at him, but even so, it makes something warm curl up in his stomach, tickle its way up his ribs. It’s been like that for a long time, and you’d think eventually it would stop catching Keith off guard, but circumstances prove otherwise every time.
“Maybe,” Shiro says, the corner of his mouth turning up into a lopsided smile. “Is that lame?”
“Yes,” Keith says immediately, watching Shiro’s eyebrows wing up in surprise, and he laughs. “But it’s less lame coming from you, if that helps.”
“Brat,” Shiro chuckles, dropping his arms.
Keith’s nose wrinkles slightly with his grin, and he shrugs.
Another fistful of color punches into the sky, followed by a boom, and people cheer behind them. It’s green this time, and it gives Shiro a funny little halo that makes Keith smile wider.
“Actually,” Shiro starts, drawing in a breath and squaring his shoulders. Distantly, Keith can hear the countdown beginning behind them, but his focus is on Shiro, who seems to be gathering himself for some kind of grave announcement. “I’m glad you’re here, because I do have a resolution. I want to be more honest.”
“What are you being dishonest about?” Keith asks, bewildered, as voices raise (eight! seven! … six!) in chorus. His smile falls away into a worried frown, and he asks, “Shiro?” as Shiro steps into his space.
He settles one hand against Keith’s cheek, searching his eyes with quick, jerky flicks. “Keith, it’s you I want to be more honest with.”
(Four! Three!) Keith’s heart lurches up into his throat, heat unspooling in his chest, as Shiro’s other hand joins the first, framing his face. As the countdown reaches one, the sky lights up with color and noise, and the universe comes to a screeching halt as Shiro’s lips press against his.
It’s little more than a chase press of lips, pressure that turns his entire world upside down and leaves him free-falling with his eyes wide open, but it’s also - somehow - everything. Shiro pulls back, breath clouding between them as worry begins to creep into his eyes now that Keith has stood here, unmoving, and he opens his mouth to say, “Keith-”
Which is what snaps him back into the moment, a rubber-band welt across his heart, and he all but throws himself into Shiro’s arms. One hand fists in the back of his shirt, the other circling his neck and urging him back down again so that Keith can rise, this time, teeth clicking together in his clumsy attempt to reciprocate the kiss before the moment passes and it’s too late.
Not this time. He can’t miss Shiro this time, he thinks, fingers twisting in the hair at the nape of his neck just a little too tightly for comfort.
When the kiss breaks this time, Keith stays close, eyes closed, but doesn’t relax his grip.
“Happy new year!” Someone leans out onto the balcony to shout at them, and after a few seconds, sounds utterly abashed as they mutter, “Ooooh, oops, sorry…”
A few beats pass in silence, and then they both burst into laughter at the same time, all the tension built up in Keith’s chest leaving him in a flood as he meets Shiro’s eyes again and sees nothing but what he’s seen every single time he looked at him before -
- but knowing, now, that it means exactly what he always hoped it meant, he was just never brave enough to ask.
“Happy new year, Shiro,” he says softly.
Shiro’s nose taps against his, his hands running down to Keith’s sides to settle at his hips, and he agrees, “Happy new year, Keith.”
